Students won’t see big changes at Cambria schools

For about 700 children and their families, summer is nearly over. School starts Wednesday.

And despite fiscal challenges, they’ll see few if any changes — from the number of teachers and iPads to the variety of classes and programs offered, according to Superintendent Vicki Schumacher and Coast Union High School Principal Jonathan Sison. Both were hired this summer, along with district Business Officer Annie Lachance.

Cambria Elementary, Santa Lucia Middle, Cambria Community Day and Coast Union and Leffingwell high schools will hold classes Aug. 27 through 29, and then will be closed for the three-day Labor Day holiday, according to Coast Unified School District schedules.

As of Tuesday, Aug. 19, about 320 grammar school students, 158 middle-schoolers and 230 high schoolers were expected to attend classes opening day. Those numbers could fluctuate somewhat.

Sison and his family also are preparing for the start of school in their Cambria home. Their four children, ages 7 through 14, will attend the local elementary, middle and high schools this year.

“I’m just overwhelmed by the warm reception my family and I have received from the community,” Sison said. In fact, some neighborhood girls brought by a plate of cookies and a welcome recently, “and it turns out they’ll be going to school with one of my daughters.”

That warmth “just reinforces my belief that this is a very special place to be. We are convinced we made the right decision” to move from the Los Angeles area to Cambria, he said. “We are just thrilled, excited and honored to be part of the fabric of things that are really essential in this community, especially the school.”

Sison said he knows “the trust that folks have put in me to lead the school and teach their children is quite an honor.”

They’re “counting on me to do right by their kids, in a community that’s very involved in educating their children.” The responsibility “is very personal to me, and even more so now that I have my own children in the system.”